Fan Fact
by matttob618
Summary: Ladybug and Cat Noir find that something's gone seriously wrong, and there may be a few snags on the way to solving the problem! Edited by EverlastingFantasy (my sister).
1. Chapter 1 - Bug on the Wall

The day started out like any other: The birds were singing, the sun was shining, Chloe Bourgeois was ordering some pastries from the Dupain-Chengs.

Wait a second… Chloe Bourgeois was in the Dupain-Chengs' bakery of her own free will?

Something smelled fishy (And it wasn't any of the pastries).

Marinette went downstairs and saw her dad, Tom, exchanging compliments with Chloe, a bag of pastries in her hand and a smile on both of their faces.

"Dad? _Chloe_? What's going on?" Marinette asked Tom.

"Good morning, Marinette!" he replied cheerfully. "I was just talking with Chloe, and she told me that I make the best pastries in the city!"

"Really?" Marinette asked, confused.

Chloe then said, "Yeah! I would've said country, except I've never actually tasted anything from outside the city. I should give some to my daddy; I bet he'd love one of your delicious Canelés! Ooh, then I'll give some to Adri-kins! Ciao!" She shook Tom's hand, then left the building.

Marinette was stunned. An actual compliment? From Chloe?!

Something was definitely wrong.

Marinette ran back upstairs to her room, where Tikki was enjoying a chocolate ball. "Tikki, something's wrong. I just saw Chloe Bourgeois downstairs, and she actually **complimented** my dad's baking!"

Tikki gasped, then quickly finished her treat. "Well, then, there's no time to waste! We need to figure out what's going on!"

Marinette shouted, "Tikki! Spots on!", and after a transformation sequence, she was Ladybug. She took her yo-yo and used it to swing onto a building, then ran along the roof in hot pursuit of Chloe.

Chloe got into her limo and was driven to City Hall, where Ladybug reasoned she was bringing the pastries to her dad like she'd said.

Ladybug tried to use her yo-yo to call Cat Noir, but there was no answer. "C'mon, kitty, pick up!" She mumbled to herself.

"I'm right here."

Ladybug jumped at the sound of Cat Noir right up in her ear. "Don't scare me like that!"

"What? You afraid I'm gonna pounce?"

Ladybug rolled her eyes. "Settle down, kitty."

"So, what's the synch?"

"Chloe Bourgeois is acting nice!"

Cat Noir gestured with his hand for her to keep going.

"That's it."

He did a double take. "Really? That's _it_?"

"I know it doesn't seem like much, but trust me. If you've known Chloe for more than a second, you'd know that this isn't what she's usually like."

"Well, you do have a fair point. But how do you know that this is something evil?"

"I can just feel it."

Cat Noir looked at her, scepticism glowing in his green eyes. He then shrugged.

Ladybug pointed at the entrance to City Hall, where Chloe was now heading towards her limo. They got up and started following it as it drove down a side road, and stopped in front of the Agreste mansion.

"You know what?" Cat Noir said rather suddenly, "I bet you're right, and just in case, I'm gonna check up on the person who lives here, in case she suddenly snaps."

Ladybug was confused, but allowed it regardless. He leapt to the window of Adrien Agreste's room, going in through an open window.

Chloe rang the doorbell, and few moments later, Adrien answered the door, much to Chloe's enthusiasm. Ladybug leapt down and hid in a tree to hear what they were saying.

"Adri-kins! So glad to see you!" She hugged Adrien, much to his apparent displeasure. Even though Ladybug saw that he was uncomfortable, she still couldn't help but feel jealous.

"Oh, hey, Chloe. What's up?"

"Oh, you know, the same old stuff."

'Lies!' Ladybug thought.

"Well, why are you here?"

"What? Can't I ever come and see my favorite fashionista?" Chloe put her arms around him.

Ladybug screamed internally.

"I just wanted to hang out and share some of these delicious pastries with you!"

" 'Tom and Sabine's Boulangerie Patisserie'? Isn't that Marinette's parents' shop? I thought you hated their foods!"

"I know, I used to, but ever since yesterday, when I was hit with that strange purple glow, I've felt a lot better!"

Ladybug gasped. This sounded like the start of a lead!

"I think I also remember _you_ getting hit with that, too! Don't you remember?"

"I… That's strange: I can't remember anything about yesterday!"

"Really? Oh, that's too bad."

Ladybug then thought for a moment. She couldn't remember yesterday, either!

Adrien then seemed to realize that they were still standing in the entrance, with the door wide open on a hot summer's day. "Wait a second, I just realized that we're still standing in the entrance, with the door wide open on a hot summer's day. All the cold air inside is gonna escape. Please, come in."

Chloe went inside. Adrien hung back for a moment to glance down the street as though looking for someone, before he joined her inside.

"What was that about?" Ladybug asked herself. "And where's Cat Noir?"

Ladybug swung from her yo-yo, landing on the window to Adrien's room. She snuck inside and called in a hushed voice, " _Cat Noir? Here, kitty, kitty!"_

Suddenly, she realized that the room seemed different. Were the walls always green? And when did Adrien get that fish tank?

She then heard him outside the door saying, "Hold on, Chloe; I just need to do something in my room quick. You should talk to my dad in the meantime."

Ladybug gasped, not wanting to be seen in Adrien's room for no apparent reason. She quickly looked around, finding a hiding spot behind the fish tank.

Adrien came into the room and closed the door behind him. A voice that Ladybug had never heard before then said, "Something really is going on!"

"I know," replied Adrien. "Let's get back to Ladybug."

'What is he-?' Ladybug started to think, but was cut off when Adrien reached his fist out and shouted:

"Plagg, claws out!"

Ladybug saw a small black blur go into his ring, and suddenly realized what was going on.

In an instant, Adrien had transformed into Cat Noir.

And Ladybug had accidentally seen the whole thing.

She could barely keep from screaming as he leapt out the window and out of sight.

"Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed when she was sure he was out of earshot. "I can't believe I just saw that!"

She gasped. "I really shouldn't have seen that!"

She gasped again. "He's gonna wonder where I am!"

With that, she leapt out the window and swung onto the roof. Cat Noir soon joined her, saying "There you are! Why're you up here?"

"Oh! I, uh, wanted to get a better view of what was happening inside, but I didn't see where you went," she lied, then coyly added, "Where did you go?"

"Well, I, uhm… I overheard them talking about a weird glow that hit them yesterday, so I came to tell you."

Now, Ladybug suddenly understood all those times he'd stumbled over his words and dodged questions while talking about Adrien.

"I heard that, too. But the strange thing is: I don't remember anything about yesterday."

"Me neither!"

"You don't think that light erased our memories, do you?"

"Maybe. Chloe could still remember it, but it made her much nicer. Why did it have a different effect on her?"

"Maybe whatever — or whoever — made the light didn't want to erase her memories. Maybe they just wanted to change her!"

"But then who did it? I'm pretty sure half of Paris would love it for Chloe to have an attitude change."

"Hmm…." Ladybug snapped her fingers. "I think I have a suspect!"

"Okay, but first, I have something I need to do."

"Okay, make it quick."

Cat Noir leapt off the roof, and Ladybug looked down at the front door, where sure enough, Adrien and Chloe appeared. Adrien sent her off in her limo, then hurried back inside. A moment later, Cat Noir came back.

"I-i just needed —" he began.

"No need to explain. Now, let's ask around."

—

"Alya? I haven't seen her since yesterday." said Nadja Chumak when they asked her. "Isn't she friends with Marinette? Or maybe that Max kid."

—

"I've been searching for her since yesterday!" exclaimed Max. "This is just awful!"

"Have you tried looking at her house?" asked Markov from inside Max's bag.

"Why didn't we think of that first?" Ladybug asked herself.

—

Alya's twin sisters didn't know where she was, and neither did Anansi.

—

"It all adds up: Alya is one of the biggest Chloe haters I know of!" Ladybug started to explain, "If Chloe did anything to make her mad, then Hawk Moth no doubt would've akumatized her! She must've changed Chloe's attitude, then erased the memories of any witnesses!"

"Well, that's a good explanation. But where is she now?"

Ladybug gasped again. "At the place where most of the other villains end up!"

—

"The Eiffel Tower!" Ladybug exclaimed as they landed at the base of the landmark.

"Why did you wait to say that until now?" Cat Noir asked her.

"Well, A —" Ladybug caught herself before she said 'Adrien'. "— 'aay, Kitty, that's a good question! And the answer is: I don't really know."

"Thought so." Cat Noir shook his head and chuckled, using his staff to help him leap up the side of the Tower.

Ladybug took a breath. 'That was really close!' she thought to herself, 'I really need to be more careful with that!'

"Hey, Bugaboo."

Ladybug jumped at the realization that he was suddenly next to her.

"You coming or what?"

"Yeah, yeah, just thinking…"

"Gotcha." He pointed at her, as though he actually understood what she meant by that. They then both climbed up the Tower.

When they got to the second viewing platform, Ladybug was surprised to see that the floor was carpeted.

"That's the second thing that's seemed off today!"

"What was the first?" Cat Noir asked.

"When we were back at Adrien's house, I swung past his window, and thought it seemed greener than usual."

"The window, or the room?"

"I initially thought it was the window playing tricks on my mind. But now, I'm having second thoughts."

Ladybug stepped onto the platform and felt the carpet. It reminded her of a rug in Master Fu's place.

Her thought was interrupted by a woman's cackling. Ladybug looked up to see Alya standing on a girder above her. She was wearing a very ornate purple dress with large shoulders and a brain emblazoned on the front; purple gloves to match; a staff topped with a blue orb with a swirl inside; and decorative gray boots that went knee-high.

She chuckled, "Well, well, well. It appears you've found my secret lair."

"Alya! I knew it!"

"Don't call me Alya! I'm RedCon!"

" 'RedCon'? Seems like Hawk Moth is running out of good names!" Ladybug teased. Then she realized, "Wait, weren't you akumatized before?"

RedCon seemed to be taken aback. "Really?"

"Yeah," Cat Noir commented, "Lady Wifi, if I recall correctly."

"W-well, nobody ever said I couldn't be akumatized twice!"

"That's a really flimsy excuse…" Ladybug trailed off.

"Regardless," RedCon said, holding her staff out and attempting to catch Ladybug in its beam. Ladybug dodged and jumped onto the rail. "Now that you know of me, I'll have to erase your minds! And who knows? Maybe I'll rewrite a bit more, too!"

'That's odd,' Ladybug observed, 'It doesn't seem like she wants the Miraculouses… Well, I can't focus on that too much right now.'

"The akuma is probably in that staff," she said to Cat Noir, who nodded.

He called out "Cataclysm!", and used his power to break a support beam, causing RedCon to fall, and giving Ladybug enough time to use her power.

She called out, "Lucky Charm!" causing the yo-yo to create —

"A mirror!" Ladybug knew exactly what to do.

RedCon tried to zap her, but Ladybug reflected the light back towards her. She had no time to dodge it, and was caught in the beam. She sat there numbly as Ladybug walked up to her and took the staff, snapping it in two. The akuma fluttered out, and Ladybug caught it with her yo-yo, turning it good and releasing it with her signature comment of "Bye-bye, little butterfly." She then called out her name and threw the mirror into the sky, triggering her yo-yo to return everything back to normal.

Alya rubbed her head. "What happened?" she asked, dazed. She looked down, realizing that they were still on one of the girders of the Tower, and leapt into Ladybug's arms. "How did I get all the way up here?!"

Ladybug giggled, leaping down from the tower and setting her down by Avenue Gustave Eiffel, where a crowd was gathering.

Chloe pushed her way through the crowd. "Alya! I remember now! You were the one who made me nice! Well, be thankful that you didn't do any permanent damage, or I'd get my daddy to sue you right now!"

"Yep, everything's back to normal..." Ladybug remarked, fully knowing it not to be the case.


	2. Chapter 2 - Feline Catty

Marinette paced in her room a few hours later, pondering over the events of earlier that day.

"What should I do now that I know Cat Noir's identity?" she asked Tikki, who was now feasting on a donut. "I mean, do I tell him my identity in return? Do I just try and forget about it?"

Tikki swallowed a bite. "You shouldn't have gone into the room in the first place!"

"I _know_! But by the time I realized what was going on, I'd already seen too much, and now I've disobeyed an order from Master Fu!"

Marinette imagined how he might react:

" _You found out his secret identity? Marinette, I told you that you two must remain anonymous!"_

" _I know, Master Fu, and I'm really sorry, but I—"_

" _No 'but's. I gave you my trust, and you let me down. I'll be taking your earrings back."_

" _Master Fu, please!_ NOOO!"

Marinette then snapped out of the fantasy and looked at Tikki, who was staring at her concernedly. "How much of that was out loud?"

"Only all of it."

Marinette groaned, reddening.

"I'm pretty sure he wouldn't react like that, but he'd still be upset. Just tell him what happened; he's a really understanding man."

"You really think so?"

Tikki stuffed the last bite of her donut into her mouth, and said through it, " _Of coursh! Trusht me on thish!_ "

Marinette lightly hugged her, then slipped her into her purse and headed out.

—

"I see…" Master Fu began after Marinette had told him everything.

"Please don't be mad at me; it was an accident! I—"

He held his finger to her lip in a shushing gesture. "Marinette, I'm not mad at you."

"You're not?"

"No. In fact, I'm proud that you decided to tell me as soon as you could."

"Really?"

He chuckled. "Of course. After all, honesty is one of the traits that any good superhero — or any good person in general — should possess."

"But then why did you always tell me to keep our identities a secret?"

"I was afraid that you two knowing would put you in more risk of being found by Hawk Moth, or of faltering on the job. Tell me, was your takedown of… Mind Rewrite… impeded at all by this new knowledge?"

"Well, not really. We still worked together well. I'd even go as far as to say that I'm even more trusting in him now that I know who's under that mask!"

Fu nodded.

"So, what do I do now?" Marinette asked, "Should I tell him my identity?"

"Hmm… that is a tricky dilemma. Do you think that he'd respond the same way if he knew?"

Marinette pondered. "Yeah, I think so."

"Well, then, you know what to do?"

"Yes. Thank you, Master Fu." Marinette stood up and bowed to him, then scooped up Tikki and left.

—

When Ladybug arrived at the Agreste manor, the sun was beginning to set. She saw Adrien looking around his room contemplatively, his miraculous floating by his side.

"You know, Plagg, I don't really remember the color of my walls." she overheard Adrien admit.

"You don't?" replied Plagg, "What kind of kid doesn't know the color of his own room?"

"Well, I guess I was always just so eager to get out of here that I never really paid attention." He then pointed to the fish tank. "Though I'm certain I didn't have that before today."

"Who knows? Maybe you got it yesterday before your memory was wiped."

"It's not just that; the Eiffel Tower was also carpeted."

"That might've been something Mind Rewrite did."

"Then why wasn't it reverted when we reset everything?"

Adrien then realized: "Wait a second… If we set everything back to normal earlier, shouldn't my memories have returned?"

"I don't know…" Plagg trailed off.

They stood there silent for a while.

"Do you feel that Ladybug was acting strange?" Adrien finally broke the silence.

"What do you mean?" Plagg responded

"I mean that she was hesitating and stumbling over her words a bit more than usual."

"Maybe you're rubbing off on her," Plagg chuckled.

"Adrien."

Adrien jumped at the new voice in the room, turning to see Ladybug standing there. Plagg quickly hid behind Adrien.

"It's okay, Plagg, I know you're there."

Adrien was flummoxed. "Ladybug! Y-y-you know?"

She nodded.

"How long?"

"Since this morning when you went in to talk with Chloe. I'd gone into your room to get a closer look, but accidentally saw you transform."

Adrien blushed. "Well, what're you doing here now?"

"I thought it would be fair if I 'accidentally' showed you."

Adrien was flummoxed.

She reached up to her ears and — hesitating only for a moment — took out her earrings, changing back into Marinette.

Adrien was stunned. "Marinette?!"

"Yep," she began awkwardly, "that's me! Now you know!"

Tikki came out of the earrings. "And I'm Tikki, Marinette's Kwami!"

Adrien looked at Plagg. "Did you know?"

Plagg responded, "Only since the Dark Owl incident."

Adrien and Marinette looked at each other. "So, what do we do now?"

She looked around. "Now, we figure out why we still can't remember yesterday, and why everything seems off."

"Got it." They both called out to their Kwamis and transformed, then looked at each other and chuckled.

They leapt out the window and ran across some roofs, headed towards the Eiffel Tower.

When they got there, Ladybug inspected the carpet. She pried off a piece, and found a tag that read, 'Made in Paris. © Kristo Carpet Company.'.

"Huh," Cat Noir remarked, "That's just one 'C' away from being truly alliterative."

"I've never heard of Kristo Carpet Company, though the name sounds familiar." She read the tag further. "It says their headquarters is 16 Rue d'Astruc. Let's go!"

—

"Welcome to Kristo Carpet Company," began Olivia Kristo, the CEO of the company, "I'm Olivia Kristo, the CEO of the company. How may I help you?"

"Well, Olivia, we were recently at the Eiffel Tower when we noticed that its second floor had been carpeted by your company."

"Ah, yes, that carpet has been there since the famous 1888 deal with Gustave Eiffel himself! It was that sale that put us on the map."

"Actually, Olivia," interjected Cat Noir, "we don't remember it being carpeted before yesterday."

"Really? Oh, well I'm sure you just never noticed before."

"I'm fairly certain that we would've noticed. So tell us, has anything strange been happening with the company, or with your family?"

"I don't know why you'd be asking, but I do remember my son Honoré storming out of the house two days ago."

"Why?"

"I don't really recall. I think it had something to do with one of his fanfictions."

"Fanfictions?"

"Yeah, he's quite the writer. He especially likes to ship you two."

Ladybug and Cat Noir looked at each other and blushed. "Well, please tell him that we aren't comfortable with other people fantasizing about our — " Ladybug gasped, remembering something that put all the pieces together. "Come on, Cat Noir, I think I just figured it out."

Cat Noir then followed her as she swung herself out the window and onto the roof to talk to him privately.

"I remember now! I met Honoré two days ago, when he approached me after a battle and tried showing me one of his stories. I looked at it, and told him exactly what I'd just told Olivia! I guess he must've taken it really hard."

"Are you saying that he got mad at you, then Hawk Moth akumatized him so that he could trap us in one of his stories?"

"I'd say there's a high probability of it."

"Well, then what about the things that are off?"

"Not every writer can get every fact right. It just so happens that he got enough things wrong for us to notice."

"Well, then how do we get out of here?"

"I don't know for sure, but I have a hunch. This may be a bit weird."

"I'm ready if you're ready."

And at that, Ladybug said, "I don't love you, Cat Noir"

Everything shook for a moment.

"Did you feel that?" Ladybug asked him.

Cat Noir was too heartbroken to form a cohesive answer.

She grabbed him and smacked his face, bringing him back to their reality. She said, "Don't you see? He loves to write shipping fanfics about us! When I said I don't love you, that started to break the story, as well as this world!"

"Oh, _I_ see how it is." Cat Noir winked. "Well, I have news for you, _m'lady_ : I never loved you, either!"

The world shook, this time more violently.

There was a bright light, and a fifteen-ish boy in Victorian clothes appeared hovering next to them. "No, no, no! That's not how the story goes!" he took out a notebook and started writing in it. "I'm gonna have to make a few rewrites — "

"Now!" Ladybug and Cat Noir both stood up and ripped the notebook out of his hands, tearing it in two.

"No! I've been tricked!" He cried out.

The pages dropped, and an akuma appeared from the pages. Ladybug took her yo-yo, capturing it and turning it pure again with her signature catchphrases.

The guy turned back into his normal self, an ordinary-looking teen with orange hair. He collapsed into a fetal position and cried, "Why, Ladybug? Why do you hate my stories?"

Ladybug knelt down next to him. "I don't hate your stories, Honoré. I just didn't like the prospect of there being people out there that write… romantic stories about me and Cat Noir. But now I see I was being narrow-minded. As long as you don't become obsessed with those stories, and as long as they don't physically affect us, then it's okay to write them, because it's what you like to do."

Honoré looked up at her and sniffled. "Rea — "

But his thought was interrupted by the most violent tremor of them all. Everything around them seemed to dissolve into whiteness.

—

Marinette woke up in her room. She looked around for Tikki, who was also waking up. "What just happened?" Marinette asked.

"I think the world of the story broke apart because there wasn't anything left to hold it together. Do you still remember everything?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think Adrian still remembers?"

"Maybe. I should probably call him to make sure."

Marinette reached for the phone, but Tikki stopped her. "I've just had a thought: what if Cat Noir isn't really Adrien?"

"What do you mean, Tikki?"

"Well, I'm just spit-balling here, but Honoré got a bunch of details wrong; Who's to say he didn't get that one wrong, too? Or maybe he somehow looked into your subconscious and took the person he found would make his story work best?"

"I don't know how much sense that makes."

"I said I was spit-balling."

Marinette looked at her phone, torn.

And then she turned it off.


End file.
